Lifes End Online
by ilikezombies
Summary: March 6th 2022 Adrien Dommers life will change forever, During the beta of Lifes End Online he was a ruthless killer. But when the game goes live and death in the game means death in the real world. . .what becomes of him? Rating may go up, Enjoy the story, Please leave a review. OCX(To be revealed at a later date) AU


**A/N: Had this idea swimming in my head for a long time and I felt if I didn't get it down now I would just end up forgetting it.**

**November 4th 2022, Last day of Lifes End Online beta, North Solon.**

"Adjust range...One click. Windage two." The player kneeling next to a tree with a pair of binoculars out.

"Roger that." Jaxon said adjusting the scope.

They were both just inside the tree line just outside a large open field. They were observing a group of players who had been working on fixing a helicopter wreck for the past three hours now. His squad had been initially surprised that on the last day of the beta people would even bother with something as complicated as a helicopter, But hey, That was their choice. It was a squad of four working on the helicopter. Three were pulling security and only one was working on actually fixing it. Jaxon watched as the mechanic attempted to start the engine for the sixth time. To his surprise it finally started and the rotors began spinning. The three players ran over and began climbing in.

"Send it when ready." The spotter said.

Jaxon brought the AS50 fully to his shoulder and lined the scope up with the tail of the Mi-17 helicopter. He pulled the trigger letting a loud POP sounded as the 50 BMG round erupted from the flames of the barrel, The round travelled across the air of the open field until it slammed into the joint of the tail rotor. The Mi-17 started going into autorotation, Lifes End Online was very realistic when it came to these sort of things, The Mi-17 hit the ground and flipped onto its side the main rotor started chopping into the ground. Jaxon and the player next to him ducked as pieces of the blades flew in all directions.

"Shit!" A player of to the right yelled as a piece of the carbon fiber blade pierced his body, His body turned into blue particles shortly after.

"Damn, Nova got hit." A member of Jaxons squad said as the rest of the squad came up.

"Didn't keep his fat head down, The dumbass." Said another

One player, The sole survivor, Began clambering out of the wreckage. Jaxon brought the butt of the rifle to his shoulder and took aim again. He lined up the shot and POP, He missed.

"Dammit, What's my DOPE?" Jaxon asked out loud.

"Wind shifted, Set it back three." The spotter said checking his data.

Jaxon adjusted his scope and lined up with the target again, The player was frantically trying to get away with the last shot landing right next to him. POP a good last PK for the betas end.

**[DOPE = Data On Previous Engagement]**

"Hell yeah!" The squad leader who went by the handle 'Dex' yelled as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Good way to end our beta experience?" Jaxon asked bringing up his menu to view his final stats.

"Man, Those guys must be pissed. We destroyed three hours of work in less than a minute." A squad member named Marco said as the group started walking down towards the wreck.

"Beta ends in two hours anyway, You guys wanna head down to Austere City for the launch party?" Dex asked the squad.

"Launch party? The actual game doesn't come out for another two days. Wouldn't it be more of a shutdown party?"

"Details, Details, We can get in the cars, Get back down south, And screw around for another two hours, Sound good?" Dex continued as they began looting the chopper.

"Yo guys, Nova just sent me a message." Marco said.

"He pissed off that he died?"

"Nah, He says he won't be getting on when the game launches, His dad is pissed for him being up all night playing on his Nerve Gear."

"Sucks to be him." Came a chorus of voices. It ended up being their squads sort of motto for the entire time of the beta.

"Guys, I'm tired, Gonna get off. Anyone want my gun?" Jaxon asked bringing up his menu.

"Toss it over here, Incase we run into trouble on the trip down." Dex said. Jaxon slid the AS50 across the ground to him and gave a wave before logging out.

**November 6th 2022, Lifes End Online launch day, Austin Texas.**

Adrien Dommer slid across the hardwood floor rushing to his room, Slamming the door behind him. He laid down in his bed and slipped the Nerve Gear on. He lay there for a minute. He felt. . .Something. He felt a presence as if being observed. He shrugged it off and got comfy. He watched the clock in the upper left of the Nerve Gears visor tick from 12:59 to 13:00.

"Link start." He said in a calm voice.

He was hit with a white flash and then a stream of colors before some monitors came up checking that all five of his senses were connected properly. The option came up for him to select his language and he hit English and then proceeded to log in.

"Beta test data still available. Would you like to use it?" The message flashed on screen and he stared at it for a moment. His in game name 'Jaxon' was displayed as well as his gender. He selected yes.

"Welcome to Life's End Online!" Flashed quickly before he was hit with a blinding light again.

He found himself standing in the middle of a city street. There were cracks running all up and down it with vegetation growing in some places of the urban sprawl. There were booths for merchants made of sheet metal, food, weapons, and ammunition could all be found. He looked up for a moment at the towering skyscraper in the center of the city. That was Austere City Square. There was a large fountain there and the area seemed more well kept than the rest of the city. Large amounts of players walked in every direction chatting or shopping. He checked his inventory to find the standard starting loadout for every newly spawned player. A combat knife, a canteen, one MRE, and 2,500 credits.

Austere City was a safe zone and any player who tried to use any weapon would just look like a fool so he felt no need to draw his weapon immediately. He began walking towards the north city gate and was going to head to the next nearest safe zone Fort Hill. In between safe zones everyone and anyone you came across was fair game and you could kill them for their stuff. Also there could be player established safe zones. For example if you didn't like the idea of purchasing or renting a place in one of the cities or forts you could get supplies together and build your own place in a location of your choosing, Big clans would construct huge forts. The only problem was that since these were not game established safe zones you were still fair game and could be killed in your "home". It wasn't an uncommon occurrence either it had sparked many territory wars during the beta.

As he exited the gates of Austere and entered the fields around it he felt a sense of calm. The breeze was blowing and there weren't any infected in sight. He walked following the cracked road with the tall grasses swaying on either side. After walking for about five minutes he spotted Fort Hill. Fort Hill of course sat on a hill overwatching the bay of Austere. There were low level infected in the fields around it who had the chance of dropping low-mid loot. It didn't take much searching for him to find something special.

An infected came shambling towards him from a tree line to his left. What made it special was that it was wearing the black riot uniform of the Solon national police. He drew his combat knife and rushed at the low level creature. He grabbed at its neck trying to shove the face protector on its riot helmet out of the way so he could kill it. Of course you didn't have to get it in the head to kill it but there was no way he was going to get through that riot armor with his starting combat knife. He shoved the knife up through the digital monsters jaw and gave it a twist, The infected "human" bled a small amount before the creature burst into blue particles.

A small victory message came up telling him how much XP he got for killing the infected which he could put towards skills that would make him faster, stronger, more accurate, mechanically proficient, the list went on and on as to what skills you could acquire. Combining the right skills together gave you unique skills.

Another small screen came up showing him the loot he got from killing the infected. The riot helmet was practically useless, Wasn't going to protect you from infected and players would just shoot him in the body. But the other thing he received brought a small smile to his face.

"M9 92FS pistol." he said aloud rather pleased with himself.

He heard two small cracks miles off in the distance.

"Gunshot" He muttered as the staccato sound echoed across the landscape. He deduced it had to be a small caliber sniper rifle or something of the sort and set off in the direction. Any type of upgrade to his gear was a good upgrade at this stage.

**Two hours later**

As the sun began to set the forest was beautiful, The orange light glistening through the trees. But he couldn't stop to admire it he was on the hunt. He wasn't Adrien Dommer the boy from Texas on here. He was Jaxon a member of the Devil Dogs squad and a relentless killer. He listened closely for any sounds of movement, This sniper had eluded him for far too long. As he looked around he noticed something that didn't look right. A branch was hanging at an extremely odd angle when he noticed that it was being pushed to that angle. . .by the player hiding in the shrubbery at the base of the tree. He raised his pistol up and brought the iron sights to his view. Lining up the shot with the center of the bush. He tensed his hands and began to pull back on the trigger. . .that was until a bright blue light began emanating from the bush. He heard a church bell ringing from the half destroyed chapel on an opposite hill.

"What the hell?" He thought aloud as soon he too was enveloped in a blue light. It seemed to happen in an instant but he soon found himself in the middle of Austere City Square gun raised and all. With every other player in the game. Others still being teleported in.

Jaxon lowered his gun and looked around, It looked like every player was forcefully teleported here. . .saving his prey in the process. Slowly the crowd grew silent as the giant screen hanging at an angle on the massive skyscraper began blinking red faster and faster until finally it stopped and was just a solid red screen the light so bright it was practically coloring the square and all the players below red. A hooded figure appeared on the screen.

"A game master?" Jaxon heard a player say as the noise of thousands of confused people started up again.

The figure held up his hand and the crowd grew silent.

"Attention, players. . . .Welcome to my world." The hooded figure said.

"What the hell." He heard a player off on his left say.

"My world?" Another voice said on his right.

"My name. . .is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world." The hooded figure spoke again.

There was a small uproar among the players wondering if it was really him, The figure waited for silence again.

"I'm sure most of you have noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat. . . .this is not a defect in the game. It is instead a feature of Lifes End Online."

As he said this Jaxon quickly opened his menu checking to see if this is true and sure enough the logout button was missing. There was a large uproar amongst the players now but the figure did not wait for silence this time.

"You cannot log out of LEO yourselves, And no one on the outside can shut down or remove your Nerve Gears. Should this be attempted, The transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will emit a powerful microwave, Destroying your brain and thus ending your life." The figure continued. There was panic amongst many of the players now some heading away from the crowd but met with invisible barriers.

"Crap. . . .I gotta find the rest of the Devil Dogs." Jaxon thought aloud as he looked around but couldn't find any of his squad mates. Players were going into full panic mode now.

"He's gotta be nuts, Right Kirito?" Jaxon overheard two players nearby talk.

"He's right though, The transmitters signals work just like microwaves. If the safety were disabled, It could fry a brain."

"What if we cut the power?" The other player asked.

"No good the Nerve Gear has an internal battery." The one he called Kirito replied.

Jaxon drowned out the rest of those two players conversation as the hooded figure began speaking again.

"Unfortunately, Several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, And have attempted to remove the Nerve Gear. As a result, Two hundred and thirteen players are both gone from this world and the real one. As you can see, News organizations across the world are reporting all of this, Including the deaths. Thus you can assume that the danger of a Nerve Gear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to beat the game. But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If you die your avatar will be forever lost and simultaneously the Nerve Gear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape, Win the game. There are several ways of doing this. Across this world there are laboratories, One hundred to be exact, All of them are guarded in one way or another, Either by NPC national military forces or laboratory experiments. . .which I assume all of you will find pleasantly difficult. Within each lab there is research data. Data that would, When combined with all the other pieces of research data, Reveal the cure to the infection that plagues this world. Complete the cure and you will all be set free. As previously stated there are other ways to win. If a single player or a squad of players manages to kill every other single player in the game, They will be set free. The largest force eligible to win that way can be no larger than a squad. Other ways to win will be revealed at a later time."

"Now before I leave you all I have added a present to all of your inventories."

"A mirror?" Jaxon thought aloud as did many of the other players as he pulled it out.

He studied the rugged charm that was his character. . . .he had to admit he looked pretty good. But then he noticed a bluish glow out of the corner of his eye as all the players began glowing blue it only lasted a second but when it stopped and he looked back down at the mirror. . . everything was different. The rugged charm that was Jaxon had been replaced with the average Adrien Dommer his real world self. But as he looked around he noticed all the other players had changed too. He assumed they also had turned into their real life selves as a lot of those who had been girls moments ago were now boys in girls clothing. Only furthering his conclusion that every girl on the internet was either a dude or an FBI agent. All joking with himself aside he payed attention as the hooded game master began speaking again.

"I'm sure right now you're all probably wondering "Why?" Why would Kayaba Akihiko, Developer of the Nerve Gear and Lifes End Online do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Lifes End Online for one reason. . . .To create this world and intervene in it and now, It is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Lifes End Online launch." He paused for a moment as if choosing his next words.

"Good luck, Players." He finished as the screen flickered off.

There was a long pause of silence, He heard a mirror shatter behind him and a girl start sobbing.

Players began screaming and yelling to be let go, Some were just in utter shock and stood there in silence. That was until a very loud and demanding voice echoed across the square.

"DEVIL DOGS, LET'S ROLL!"

It was clear who the owner of the voice was, A tall man in his mid twenties, He had on a flecktarn jacket and a pair of jeans with combat boots, His hair was cut short and his eyes were masked by aviator sunglasses. He pushed through the crowd with force yet with a sense of grace. It didn't look like any players would bother him anyway as he was being followed by a group of other players. All similarly dressed and brandishing large weapons. The owner of the voice and leader of the pack, Although he looked nothing like he did during the beta could be only one person from the sound of his voice, Dex.

When Dex and the other Devil Dogs stopped in front of Jaxon it was clear that he was the odd one out. While in his characters form he looked just like most of them. . . .but now that they looked like their real world selves it was clear he was the youngest.

"Jaxon?" Dex asked looking down at him, He stood a good half foot taller than Jaxon.

"Dex." They were attracting alot of eyes and the people around them had grown quiet.

"Get a move on, We have a pickup with some gear in the back you can use, We're moving out." Dex said as he started walking again.

"And where are we going?" Jaxon asked as he started walking behind him, Dex stopped.

"Kid, I'll tell you when we're at the truck. Now walk." This was new, He had never been called kid before. He was generally respected within the group as he was one of the top marksmen in the beta, And he had just been publicly humiliated by his commander for being young.

He hung his head a little low and followed them out of the city to where a white pickup truck was parked among some trees. He climbed into the back and opened a trunk and looked at the gear for him. He took the M81 camouflage jacket and slipped it on, The rest of the clothes for him consisted of digital woodland MARPAT pants, An M81 bandanna which he rolled up and tied it around his head rambo style, And finally an OD green assault vest for holding magazines. The weapon in the trunk for him was an FN SCAR-H also known as the Mk 17 mod 0 with a holographic sight, foregrip, and an aiming laser, A little less long range than what he was used to but it would do.

"So where are we headed?" He asked Marco who was sitting across from him.

"Do you remember that underground facility we raided that one time during the beta? Just south of Erlenburg?" Marco said as he slid a magazine into his AK-12 assault rifle.

"Yeah."

"Well Dex thinks that might be one of the laboratories. Figures we might as well get credited for finding the first piece of research data."

"Well then. . . .Let's get to work." Jaxon said as he cocked his SCAR-H.

**A/N: And there we go, The first chapter. It's short I know, But I feel it does it's job of setting up this alternate universe well, While still leaving some to the imagination. I have great plans for this story and hope that you the reader enjoy this first chapter. In the words of the great Kayaba Akihiko. . . .Welcome to my world.**


End file.
